Tag Archives: Banner

These pictures are horrible. I totally procrastinated and it’s dark and believe it or not, I took these in my dim living room with no flash. I’m actually impressed with this little Canon camera I bought a couple months ago, and considering my lighting conditions are horrible, these pictures could be a lot worse.

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I’m so embarrassed. For one, I was supposed to post last Friday. I made this project three weeks ago and was so excited that I had my project done already… and then forgot to post it. My excuses get worse: I took pictures of it and can’t find them anywhere!! The only picture I have is horrible and it isn’t even finished here. I since added to the blank square. So on Monday, when I go to school, I will take pictures of it and get a nicer shot of it.

This even has my dog’s foot in it because she decided to back into the picture, but I was able to crop that part out.

Anyway, I wanted a banner to hang in front of my desk, so I used the chipboard from the KNK store and cut it into 4″ squares. And since it is 12×12, you get 9 squares from a sheet, (did I do that math right, because I’ve since learned I’m not smarter than a 5th grader in math), and look at that, my name and a blank square is perfect for this so I only used 1 sheet. I like this chipboard as it is very sturdy, but also very easy to trim. I haven’t tried cutting it on my Zing, but I’m sure it would do just fine. I glued 4×4 sheets of a pretty damask paper I found from my DCWV stash and cut the letters out of DCWV red glitter paper. It is glittery, I promise. I made the letters a little big, I should’ve made them about 3″ and I made them about 3.5.” I had to “smoosh” the M’s or they didn’t fit. I also didn’t center them on the squares because I was debating having the ribbon go across the top, but I ended up going behind the squares. I inked the edges with black ink (as well as my fingers… and some of the table), and used foam tape to stick the letters on. Then I cut holes in the top and threaded the ribbon through. The other version I saw of this had ribbon bows tying each square together and I think I should’ve done that instead, but it’s fine the way it looks.

Since the panda is our mascot, I used print and cut to cut him out and I used foam tape to stick him in the middle. As I said before, I’ll get a better picture of the finished project and you’ll even see my messy desk! Bonus! I have it taped it front of my desk and since I was new to the school, it was a nice way to announce myself and a pretty way to dress up my desk.

Teaching 5th grade is really fun! It’s really hard work, but I’m really enjoying it and I absolutely love my new school. I promise I’ll be on time next month!

Last month I posted some signs and banners that I made for a party. Today you’ll find the step by step process for making the two sided tri-color happy birthday banner that was featured in that post. I like making these for several reasons. First, the three colors can make some nice graphic statements, especially if you utilize color triads as in this example. Second, you can use inexpensive paper. Third, while they look complicated to make, they are fairly simple but do require you carefully follow multiple steps. To make it easier to follow, they are numbered below. When you’re done, you’ll have a sturdy banner that will last for many years.

Here are the materials and tools you’ll need: three colors of paper, grommets and grommet set, spray adhesive (my constant companion), and string or ribbon. A brayer will help make everything adhere well, and you’ll want some small weights to hold template paper in place (more on that later).

In designing your banner, you’ll choose one color to be your background (bottom layer) color, one color to be your letters and one color to be your surround. You will also use all interior waste peices, so don’t discard them!

1. Start by cutting out all your background color pieces with the grommet holes. Cut one for each letter/number/icon you have. For a banner that says “Happy Birthday” you would want 14 pieces: one for each letter, and one for the space between the words “happy” and “birthday”. Set these in a pile.

Base Banner with Grommet Holes

2. Cut out all your letter/number/icon color pieces. I used the free font called “Big Top”. You’ll need to install it if you use the file. You’ll have 14 pieces, 13 with letters, and one without (the spacer).

Weed the interior sections from those letters that have them, turn the interior sections over, and label them as to their top, bottom and what letter they go to. Place them on a piece of waste paper, labeled side up (wrong side up).

Weed the letters from the banner pieces. Set them aside.

Weed the zig-zag banner with the letter cutout from the mat. Set these aside. Remaining paper can be discarded.

Labeled interior sections of letters

3. Cut out all your surround color pieces. Cut one more than the total number of background pieces. The extra piece will be used as a template.

Weed the interior sections from the surround. Set these aside.

Weed the zig-zag banner with the surround cutout from the mat. Set these aside. Remaining paper can be discarded.

4. Glue the zig-zag letter banner pieces to the background pieces.

For zig-zag letter banner pieces that have letters with interior space glue the banner pieces only together matching up grommet holes. Brayer.

Zig-Zag letter banner adhered to background banner

Find the matching letter piece and place it inside the letter space without gluing it down (you will remove this later).

Letter inserted without adhesive as template

Find the interior spaces pieces of your letter (remember you marked these in step 2) and put adhesive on them. Position them inside the letter.

Labeled interior letter pieces

Without removing the larger letter, brayer all. The larger letter helps keep pieces from shifting when you brayer.

Interior glued spaces inside unglued letter template

Remove larger letter.

Finished Letter Banner

5. Glue the surround cutouts to the zig-zag banner pieces.

Surround Template with surround pieces (in dish)

With the zig zag letter piece still facing up, place one zig-zag surround piece without adhesive directly on top, aligning all edges. Place small weights at top and bottom to hold in place.

10. Insert your grommets and set. While you can forego grommets, it will rip out eventually. Using grommets will ensure that it lasts for years to come. You will have three layers of paper at the holes. thick enough to support the grommets.

Set Grommets for stability

11. Lace your string or ribbon through the grommets.

Completed Banner

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Through the years I had a metal Christmas banner consisting of linked letters that folded up neatly between holidays. I enjoyed it so much that I decided to create an alphabet on my 15″ KNK Maxx that would give me diversity and store easily. The alphabet that I am sharing today has evolved over the past few months. The first one I designed for New Year’s, but somehow I “lost it” in my computer before I actually cut and used it. ‘Cupcake Judy’ and her husband, John, came to visit this spring. Before they came I got busy, so I could have it hanging when they arrived. They have a March anniversary, so when I saw this neat fabric I knew it would be perfect.

The base letters are cut from poster board. The top letters are 5″ tall and are cut from quilter’s weight fabric that had Lite Steam-a-Seam2 ironed on the back. The letters cut from fabric were applied individually to the base letters with a dry iron. The single shamrock has a top layer of glittered cardstock. It was originally designed with links, but didn’t work as I envisioned, so I removed the links and adhered it to the wall with temporary adhesive. Small nails were used to hang the 2 banners. These banners and those that follow are assembled with small brads inserted in the pre-cut holes at the end of each link.

When John and Judy left, I folded the banner on itself so they could safely take it home in their luggage.

While Judy was here, we went to visit Sandy. Of course I wanted to take a banner for her to see, so I made this one:

When I showed it to my husband, he said why didn’t I use a “K” for K-N-K. So, I was back to the drawing board and made this one. The top letters in both of these are glittered cardstock, although the photography doesn’t show it in these pictures.

I was challenged with both of these to make them hang level and be supported by the top design, which is also included in the free files. To accomplish this, I cut the top design 4 times and glued them together and also added additional poster board horizontal strips on the blue and purple rows. Only with a Klic-n-Kut can we cut with that kind of accuracy! I took the KUT-KUT-KUT to Sandy and I kept CUT-CUT-CUT. Since then, mine has been hanging in my craft room and hasn’t held up well as the 2nd and 3rd rows are bowing. A PFD is included with this post that will show you what happened and how I solved the problem with popsicle sticks. Now, Sandy hasn’t said anything, but I think I probably need to retrieve hers and ‘fix it’.

Easter came in April and I made a banner to go with a metal sculpture that hangs in my entryway. The top layer is purple glittered cardstock, mounted on a base alphabet of gold metallic cardstock.

Lastly, I have made a Happy Birthday banner. For pictures, I have it hanging on my fireplace mantel. It looks so pretty there that I am going to leave it until the middle of June for my husband’s birthday. The top letters are glittered cardstock and the brads used are small lollipops. Ribbons are attached to the ends for tying to small nails.

This has been a fun project with lots of possibilities that I am sure I will use many times over. I hope you will enjoy it also. Be sure to check the next posting to see what ‘Cupcake Judy’ has done with it.

This fun banner has “Lemonade” lettering that I cut from vinyl on my 15″ KNK Maxx. It was made for a lemonade stand that was used in a 1st grade play and later for a lemonade stand on the corner by my grandchildren.

The banner base, measuring 36″ wide by 9″ tall, was made at a local sign shop for a very nominal price to my specifications, including the grommets. The Soopafresh font was a perfect choice because it has a casual, uneven bottom line as is shown on the finished banner.

Since the color of the letters was alternated, they were cut one color at a time. For accurate placement, I printed the design on my printer and laid that printout above the banner. I masked and applied each letter individually, using the printout as a guide. The finished banner was attached to the PVC frame with cable ties.

For storage it is important to remember to roll a banner to which vinyl has been applied to with the right side of the banner on the outside of the roll.
The center of the play, Lemonade!, is the lemonade stand, owned by Mother Goose. The other parts are played by characters from Mother Goose tales. It is very cute.

The design for this lemonade stand came from Creating Cool Kids Stuff, which is no longer in print. However, I have done a web search and find that they are readily available for a lot less than I paid for mine.
The assembly of the stand, designed for 1″ PVC, was very easy and the directions were excellent. My only change was to make it a bit taller than the original design. That, too, was easily done and should you decide to make one, email me and I will send you the specific changes in height, as well as the modifications made that allow us to store it flat, when not in use.